The adventurer’s guild was the same as ever. Various folk of different races were talking, eating, drinking, working on handicrafts or even looking at the questboard for potential work. The door was broken and there seems to be no plan to repair it so there was no door to kick down. So Ren, with a man hog tied hoisted on her back, stares at the door that was off it’s hinges. There was no kicking it down or open. The best she can do is kick the door before walking through the doorframe of the adventurer’s guild. Once she’s inside, she yells.
“Guys! I found a guy who is part of a conspiracy with a parade float!”
Everyone inside stops what they’re doing and gives Ren a hard look. After a moment, everyone cheers and throws their hands up in celebration. Ren plops the man down onto a table. He is swiftly taken away by dozens of hands who spirit him away into a back room. There is then the sound of loud banging and crashing from the other side of the door. As they do, other adventurers outside rush to and fro for some elaborate reason.
“What’s happening?” Ren asked.
“Well, this is how we prepare for tackling conspiracies.” Bron Stonearm the dwarven adventurer with a raven says. “See, we get a corkboard with parchment and red string over here. A little bit of plotting over there. You know, the good stuff.”
“Are you torturing the guy I brought in?” Ren asked.
“Hah! Yes. But not with waterboarding or a whip.” Bron boasts cheerfully. “We have something worse. Bad musical talent and shitty fanfiction.”
At Bron’s words, a man screams and cries from the opposite side of the door to that backroom. Ren and the voices in her head get the sense that there is a truth to Bron’s words.
“Cool.” Ren says. “How can I help?”
“I have no idea.” Bron says with a smile.
“Okay.” Ren says.
“At best, I can only recommend you get yourself ready for an adventure.” Bron says while he shrugs his shoulders. “By the time you’re done, our boys and girls would have gotten to the guy and he’ll spill his guts on his part of the conspiracy.”
“Cool.” Ren says. “I bought some new stuff, so I’m going to try them on.”
“You do that kiddo.” Bron nods in approval. “We got changing rooms back there. We also have lockers, but don’t expect them to be lock boxes in a bank vault or anything.”
“Okay.” Ren says.
Ren heads off to the women’s changing room Bron pointed out to her. It wasn’t only Ren. Many other adventurers were going to the changing rooms to prepare for a grand adventure. When Ren once again emerged, she was sporting a new cloth red tunic and dull black pants. Ren wears a dull brown cloak above them. At her waist is a belt with a variety of pouches and a leather sheath for a single knife behind her back. Held by that belt is a katana and it’s scabbard. A chain hangs from her neck down to her hip where a green and gold jewel inlaid spellbook dangles. She wears her long red hair in a half up hairstyle pinned behind her head by a hairpin made of silver with a green inlaid gem.
“Oh! Why Ren, you look fantastic.” Linda Bona the human woman says as she approaches Ren. “You look like a proper rogue now. Better this than the mage robes you were wearing before.”
“Yep.” Ren says in her usual tone of voice. “What now?”
“First, here’s your cut of that quest we did yesterday.” Linda hands Ren a pouch of coins. “Next, we wait for Crane to make an announcement.”
“Listen up!” Crane Baross shouts.
“Oh, looks like we got good timing.” Linda says.
“Our friend in the back finally gave us a lead on this month’s conspiracy! An unknown group of ritualists has entered the city and plans to draw a massive ritual circle during the parade throughout Longcrest city. They will be doing so by disguising themselves as festival stalls and parade floats. As of now, we don’t know why. All we know is that they haven’t cleared it with the festival committee and there’s a lot of magic wrapped up in the one we happened across. First, I need a team to check out the parade float we uncovered. Second, I need a team who are in with the festival planning committee. Call in favors or otherwise try to find out everything they can. Lastly, I need everyone who isn’t in the first two teams to be on the prowl for trouble and signs of this conspiracy. That means you go out looking for trouble! Any questions?”
“I can look for trouble?” Ren asks.
“You can look for all the trouble.” Crane says. “You can run towards the sound of screaming. You can chase the violence to it’s root. You can make it all the way to the bottom of this mess.”
Ren is bouncing on her heels while maintaining a stoic and emotionless face. At Crane’s words, Ren darts off out of the adventurer’s guild. As she does, one man asks a question.
“Wait, why aren’t we telling the city guard about this?”
“What do you want them to do, work to help the people or something?” another man says.
“But isn’t it their job?”
“Yes, but do you honestly expect them to get the job done? Either properly or in time?”
“Ah, okay maybe I can see that.”
“I mean, we’re still going to tell them about it, but by the time they even start to think about getting anything done, we’ll have saved the day.”
“Right.”
“If there are no more questions, you may begin. Return here with any new findings. Also return for any minor updates or news. Major updates will be distributed via messenger birds to each adventurer taking on this case.” Crane announces loudly.
“I’m going to poke at parade floats.” Ren says.
“Awesome! Let me poke too!”
“Yeah! Let’s all go poke at parade floats!”
“Won’t someone have a problem with us poking around?”
“Yes, but I can just give them an excuse.”
“What do you mean?”
“I was working on a parade float too. I can get us through the door and we can go ham before security kicks us out.”
“Alright, let’s do it.”
Ren is about to dart off until Crane stops her.
“Hold it, kiddo. Wait for me to issue the quest.”
Crane waves his hand. Within Ren’s head, a notification appears.
Quest
Unravel the conspiracy of the month.
The voices in her head handily accept the quest.
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Quest Accepted!
“Now go! Whether you are here to embody the heroes of old, to protect someone dear to you or for another reason, I want you to go with caution and care. We are expected to be self sufficient. To be heroes who stand in the face of danger. That is why few people dare to aid us. Because we march into the jaws of death and may draw others in. Even if you beg, you may never find aid even in this city. Even then, we will challenge fate. Tempt it to bring a dagger to our necks. We will then laugh in the face of death. All for one purpose. What purpose is that?”
“To adventure!” the crowd of adventurers cheered.
“Where is danger found?” Crane asks the crowd.
“In the jaws of death!” the crowd shouts.
“Then go!” Crane says. “Walk the line between stupidity and bravery. Do not reject either. Embrace both sides of that line! Become true adventurers!”
“Let’s poke at things we think are magical and shit!”
“Let’s figure out who this new enemy is!”
“Let’s make a mess of another conspiracy!”
“Let’s massacre the conspiracy of the month!”
“We have two days and a handful of hours to get this done before the Golden Autumn festival!” Crane shouts. “Let’s get this done and enjoy ourselves a festival.”
The building shakes with the roar of nearly a hundred adventurers. All armed and armored. All willing to leap into danger. Few, if any, have a plan. Soon armed and armored men and women rush out of the building and scatter to the streets. The neighbors give a heavy sigh and start closing up their window shutters and prepare for the mass chaos that is sure to ensue.
Ren finds herself running along with a few of the others. The group heads over to a workshop where some of the parade floats are being finished. There, she and a bunch of other adventurers look the entire workshop over. Where workers were once getting ready to complete their work, they now find a flood of intruders and trespassers. They poke and prod at the parade floats that they had been working on for so long. Their tools are taken from their toolbelts, toolboxes and toolshelves. Each of them are inspected by complete strangers to these workers.
“I found some weird magic stuff here!” one adventurer yells.
“I found a hidden trapdoor here!” another one yells.
“Well, let’s hop down and check it out!” a third yells.
“What! No! Stop!” one of the workers shouts. “You can’t go in there!”
“We’re going down there!”
“No! You can’t do that!”
The adventurer pulls the trapdoor entrance open. Once it is pulled open, a low growling can be heard.
“Woah! What is that?”
From the floor, a figure bursts forth. The stone floor crumbles and dust kicks up. The adventurer who opened the trapdoor leaps back from the plume of dust.
“So what did you see?” another adventurer asked.
“I saw an elephant.” the adventurer says. “A crocodile too.”
“You saw both an elephant and crocodile behind that door?”
“No, I saw them at once.”
“What do you mean? Did you see an elephant and crocodile down there?”
“Yes, I saw them both on the same guy.”
“Wait, did you see a guy or some animals?”
“Both.”
“What do you mean both?”
“I think that’s a chimera.” Ren says. “Look.”
Ren points to the plume of dust. As the dust begins to clear away, a bipedal and almost humanoid figure is slowly revealed. One leg is an elephant’s foot while the other is a crocodile’s foot. Where one arm is, there is an elephant’s head with it’s trunk serving as the arm. The other arm is the majority of a crocodile with it’s fore legs and snout looking around. Beyond those, it has no head where a humanoid figure’s head would be. Just the heads serving as it’s arms. Most of the body is covered in a mix of elephant skin and crocodile scales.
“Oh! A chimera!” one adventurer slaps his palm to his face. “I forgot those were things.”
“Oh yeah.”
“Wait, what’s a chimera?”
“Alright, so a chimera is a monster made by putting multiple life forms together. Some wackos can do it with magic, some with alchemy and others with surgery. It’s a whole mess.”
“Wait, is making chimera super illegal and stuff?”
“Here in the Irvan kingdom, yeah. It must’ve come from the Razneck empire up north. There are government grants and stuff for chimeras.”
“Can I stab it?” Ren asks.
“Oh yeah sure.”
Ren draws her sword and swings with a normal attack. The attack finds it’s mark. Ren’s katana does sink into the chimera’s skin, but not as deep as Ren or the sword in her hand would have liked. In fact, Warumasa only managed to cut skin, but not draw blood. In response, the chimera swung it’s elephant trunk at Ren. The speed and power were like nothing Ren had encountered before. Ren could only manage to bring up her arm and put it between the trunk and her chest with all her vital organs.
Status: Injured
Left Arm Broken Severity 4
Ren crashes through a wall in the workshop. She lands hard and tumbles onto the street. Ren staggers to her feet. She now finds that she cannot move her left arm. It hangs limp at her side. As Ren staggers up, dozens of other adventurers are tossed through the same wall and land on the same street.
“Augh! Did anyone manage to scratch it?” an adventurer asked.
“All I got was a scratch.” an adventurer says as he pushes himself up with his two handed claymore for support.
“I zapped it with magic, but I didn’t even see it flinch.”
“The thing caught me when I used Dark Step.”
“It easily toppled me in a contest of strength.”
“Did anyone check it’s status?”
“We can’t. Only experts in the field and means that created the chimera can look at it’s status. Same rule applies to any and every chimera.”
“I think we can just chalk it up to being strong, fast and sturdy.”
As the adventures ponder their new enemy, it bursts through the wall it threw the adventurers through. Then one of the workers peers out the hole it just cashed through and shouts out an order.
“Go! Keep them busy while we burn all the evidence and stuff!”
The worker rushes back inside to presumably burn all the damning evidence of whatever strange ritual they will be performing.
“Shit! Forget the monster, play the objective.” an adventurer shouts. “Stop those guys!”
As he speaks, the chimera winds up a swing to bring it’s trunk down on an adventurer. The man leaps out of the way and scrambles to face the beast.
“I think this chimera hates being ignored.”
“It’s fine.” Ren says. “I’ll take care of the chimera myself.”
“Woah! Kid, this monster is one tough customer. You can’t just take it on alone.”
“If you do this, no one can or will help you. Not us, or the guards who are… well they’re not here to watch us get clobbered, but they probably wouldn’t help you anyway.”
“Play the objective.” Ren says.
Unfortunately, Ren’s left arm hanging limp doesn’t help convince anyone. So instead, she doesn’t give them a choice in the matter.
“Haste.”
Ren suddenly darts toward the chimera with blinding speed. She draws a knife from her belt. The chimera prepares to swing at her. Even with the Haste spell, the chimera seems to be able to track Ren and throw out a counter. Ren responds with a skill of her own.
“Dark Step.”
Ren suddenly vanishes as an elephant trunk slams into the ground. She appears behind the chimera. The next problem is that where one arm is an elephant head, the other arm is a crocodile head. The crocodile sees Ren without issue and rushes to snap at her. Even after using a rogue skill to close the distance between herself and the chimera, she is forced back. Thankfully, Ren has successfully attracted the chimera’s attention. Ren darts down the street. The chimera slowly waddles down the street. The chimera stops for a moment and looks back at the other adventurers. As the others recoil before the chimera’s gaze, Ren rushes back and strikes it with a knife. Unfortunately, the knife glides across the chimera’s skin and no visible harm is done. With the chimera’s attention reacquired, she darts off again. Then she waits while the chimera waddles on it’s two mismatched legs toward Ren. Ren has to wait a bit so the chimera doesn’t lose interest in her.
“Well, it looks like that chimera doesn’t walk too well.” an adventurer says.
“Alright, let’s preserve whatever evidence they got in there.” another says.
Between Ren waiting for the chimera and running away a few paces, the other adventurers rush into that workshop. However, Ren soon discovers that the chimera may be bad at running, it seems to be adept at leaping. Ren manages to dodge the next swing with her enhanced speed. The chimera then begins to leap off walls. Then it leaps off of rooftops and swings down at Ren. At some point, the chimera seems to have learned that hopping like a rabbit was faster at moving. Ren begins to swiftly exchange blows with the chimera. However, this is not an even trade. Ren has to dodge the chimera while the chimera’s skin has yet to be pierced by Ren’s knife. She stows the knife and points a hand out at the chimera.
“Ice Bolt.”
A bolt of ice lances out at the chimera. It splinters across the chimera’s skin and deals no visible damage.
“Chain Lightning.”
Lighting flays out at the chimera. There is still no visible effect.
“Fireball.”
This time a ball of fire erupts in front of the chimera. When the smoke and fire clears, there is still no visible damage.
“Magic Pierce.”
A beam of arcane light shoots out and strikes the chimera. There is hope, as the beam of magic does not immediately bounce off the chimera’s hide. When the beam stops, there is only a minor blemish on the skin surface that was struck. With four spells failing her, Ren twirls as she dodges another slam from the chimera. As she does, she pulls a musket from beneath her cloak beyond the chimera’s gaze. She fires the loaded musket at the chimera. As of yet, Ren has not caused this chimera any harm after that initial attack with Warumasa. Now another wound appears on the chimera. The musket ball cuts through the chimera’s thick hide and leaves a small gunshot wound. Seemingly, the only injuries Ren can inflict on this chimera was with her katana that prefers a two handed fighting style or the musket that takes a long time to load. With one hand hanging limp, neither are viable options. Even then, Ren just stows her musket behind her cloak with a twirl. When Ren stops twirling, she has a stick of dynamite in her hand and a set of flint and steel fire starter. Ren holds the stick of dynamite in her mouth and prepares to light the fuse with the fire starter in her hands. As Ren starts to strike the flint to the steel, a hand comes up to stop her.
“Your tenacity is something to be admired, but please let me handle this.” a woman’s voice spoke to her.
A woman pulls Ren’s shoulder back so that she may step forward. Ren looks up with a stick of dynamite still in her mouth. She sees a woman with black shoulder length hair. She wears long pants, a blue dress shirt, a black overcoat with some sort of blue monster’s fur around the collar of the coat. Strangely, her eyes are of two different colors. One is pink while the other is blue. Strangely, she carries a straight sword in it’s scabbard while holding it in her hand instead of wearing it on her hip or back.
“Please, leave this to me.” the woman says. “There is no need to go to such lengths for a monster like this.”
She slowly approaches the chimera with her sword still in it’s scabbard. The chimera lunges it’s trunk at her, but she deftly side steps the blow that shatters the ground beside her. Then the crocodile head twists around to snap it’s jaws at her. The woman ducks underneath it and steps behind the chimera. Now standing behind the beast, the woman finally draws her sword. As she does, a chill rushes through the street. Windows begin to fog up with frost. The chimera was thrown forward onto what can barely be considered it’s arms and knees. The woman raises her sword above her head. With a swift hand she brings her sword down onto the chimera’s back. Ice shards begin to form on the corpse and it goes still. That monster that Ren had failed to harm was slain with a single strike from this woman. With the monster slain, Ren takes the stick of dynamite from her mouth.
“Wow.” Ren says in her usual tone.
The woman sheathes her sword again. She does not move the sword to her hip or to her back. Instead, she keeps holding it in her hand.
“Who are you?” Ren asks.
“I am Xue Long. A simple adventurer.” the woman introduced herself.
“Oh shit!” a passerby on the street says. “That's Xue Long, the champion of Longcrest city!”
“Holy crap!” another says. “An adventurer that didn't level a city block to slay that one monster!”
“That's the legendary Xue! A foreigner to these lands and the woman who earned the title of champion?”
A crowd begins to form around the woman and the slain monster. Both to gawk at the monster and the woman who slew it. Xue presses one of her fingers against her temple as she lets out a heavy sigh.
“I tried to be subtle.” Xue groans in frustration.
